Analysis of Miles Davis “Kind of Blue” Album For my final project of this course, I have chosen the “Kind of Blue” album by Miles Davis. This album was released in 1959, and is considered to be the best-selling jazz record of all time (NPR.org, 2017). When I was in high school as a junior, I took the jazz band class that was offered at that time. One of the most talked about musician in that class was Miles Davis. Miles was a major influence in the world of jazz; he was a brilliant composer and musician. “Kind of Blue” was Miles greatest creation ever. This album showed off “modal” jazz brilliantly. Miles Davis was a brilliant composer, and his ability to play trumpet was out of this world. At age 32, Davis was a professional, becoming one
This piece begins with a trumpet and saxophone duet by Davis and Coltrane. Both were following the style that Davis had implemented into his solo in So What; the duet was very slow, smooth, and simplistic. They were taking their time with the solo, improvising their notes along the way. Following their duet, the piano player, Wynton Kelly got his chance at a solo. Wynton did an amazing job with his solo, very smooth, simplistic, and well swung. Next up was a solo by Miles Davis. Slow and smooth, just as his solo in So What. Brilliant work on his part. Early into his solo, he showcases his ability to go from low to high octaves with no struggle. During his solo, he has an accompaniment by the drummer and the pianist. Davis takes his time on his solo, smooth and short with his lines. A sudden conclusion to Miles’s solo beings Coltrane’s saxophone solo. Playing with a heavy articulation, quick with his notes, at times it sounds a bit static. There was also a solo by their alto sax player, Julian Adderley. Adderley mixed in both styles of Coltrane and Davis, creating a wonderful solo filled with smooth transitions, as well as fast paced heavy scales. The piece concludes with Davis and Coltrane repeating the duet that was played at the beginning of the piece. This piece was in a 12-bar blues
Pianist Bill Evans begins the piece with a beautiful piano solo, sounding like something you would listen to while sitting by a fire drinking coffee and reading a book on a cold, winter day. About twenty seconds after the beginning of the tune, Miles Davis comes in with a very soothing, melodic solo played with a mute in. He plays his longs long, adding a soothing feeling to the piece. Almost like a ballad. The pianist then goes back to his solo, swinging his notes quite well. Next is the saxophone solo. Unlike the previous pieces, this saxophone solo was very soothing. It was melodic, harmonizing, with only a couple fast paced cords. It was a short solo, then transitions back to the pianist. The pianist was a huge part of this piece. I feel that if anyone else had played this piece, it wouldn’t have been as effective. Bill Evans knew how to set the mood, and was brilliant at it. Miles Davis then goes back for another brief solo, closely resembling the one at the beginning. Then, to end the piece, the pianist has one final solo, this one being a lot different from the rest. It was faster paced and heavier than the previous solos. Overall, incredible ending to this piece. This piece was a 10-bar piece, which is very uncommon. It makes the piece stand out from the rest, as it is incredibly different from the
Perhaps the blues was representation of optimism and faith for the entire city of Harlem and all of African-American descent. Music is portrayed fluently and abundantly throughout the entire story of “Sonny’s Blues”. Despite the fact that Sonny frequently plays the piano, there is always a juke box playing, the “humming an old church song”, a “jangling beat of a tambourine”, a tune being whistled, or a revival meeting with the singing of religious words (Baldwin 293-307). The repetition of music in the short story is a realistic portrayal of how regular the blues, musically and emotionally, was present in an African-American’s life during the era of racial discrimination. Flibbert explains that the rooted, burdensome emotion felt by African Americans is difficult to put to words, other than describing it as the blues. He best defines the blues as “a mental and emotional state arising from recognition of limitation imposed-in the case of African-Americans-by racial barriers to the community” (Flibbert). Though a definite definition exists, the blues cannot simply be construed. To cope with this unexplainable feeling of blue, the African-American folk genre of jazz music was created. Finally, the blues was something African-Americans owned and that the white man could not strip them of. Though music appears to show up at the most troublesome times in “Sonny’s Blues”, it brings along “a glimmer of life within the
8. V. Bogdanov, C. Woodstra, S. T. Erlewine. 2003. All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive
The first song played was from a genre that I had previously taken a test on, Sonata. The musicians played the song by the book. There were three movements and polyphonic texture. It was even fast and jerky. Nonetheless, this is the part where my rollercoaster was going down. In my opinion it was boring. Although very well played, the song itself did not interest me. I did not like the roadrunner, coyote essence of the song. The piano accompaniment would sometimes play the melody and let the clarinet follow and then they would switch. This to me seemed force instead of like the Sonatas that I listened to in class. However, apart from the musical aspect of the first piece there was a certain intensity expressed by the performers. I had never seen a
... began the piece, and the beat of the drum was frequent. After the introduction, the rest of the musicians joined. The pianist also had a solo part with the companion of the drum. The pace of the song was moderately fast, and the song ended with a climax.
Of the five minutes, I believe that the most interesting segments are the first solo and the last minute or so; I will be analyzing these particular portions in depth. From the very start, this song is hot and fast. To open, the entire band plays a fast phrase that follows the 12 bar blues scale and this phrase remains central throughout the entirety of the song. The bass and piano hold this phrase while the horns transition into a separate rhythm to compliment it. These two phrases are repeated until the beginning of the first saxophone solo at :56. During this solo the bass transitions to a shuffle line while the piano compliments. The other horns join in with riffs after the first two choruses of the solo. The solo continues for another two choruses with the whole band playing before it is rounded off. The final minute of the song begins with a repeat of the third, fourth, and fifth choruses. In the final 20 seconds, things begin to get very interesting. The horns hold the last note of the chorus as the rhythms comes to a sharp halt. The horns engage in a brief agglomeration of notes that exhibits a strong use of polyphony and could be described as somewhat hectic. The drummer begins to shine with a solo of his own which he continues for the final seconds of the song, before resolving the entire song with a final
Nisenson, Eric. The making of Kind of blue: Miles Davis and his masterpiece. Macmillan, 2001.
In the story, Sonny’s Blues, James Baldwin uses music, jazz, and hymns to shape the story and show how it shapes Sonny’s life and how music is inherent to his survival. All of this is seen through the older brother’s eyes; the older brother is the narrator and the reader begins to understand Sonny through the older brother’s perspective. Baldwin writes the story like a jazz song to make a story out of his father’s past and his brother’s career choice and puts them together, going back and forth, until it creates a blending of histories and lives. He shows how the father’s past is similar to the narrator’s life; the older brother has conflicts with his younger brother, Sonny. Music heals the relationship.
The section of the tenor sax solo is 0:00 to 0:19. Even if it is tenor saxophone solo, other instruments, guitar and bass, still plays together, and makes a good harmonization. Tenor saxophone definitely stands out, and other instruments are in the background, which gives a good blend of the start of the piece. Guitar solo starts right after that, which starts from 0:20, and ends at 01:01. This part is very interesting because it is very different from the beginning of the piece. If tenor sax started out solo and blended out at the end of its solo, guitar goes back and forth of solo and blending in. It starts out from solo, and then the other instruments play in the background, then guitar slowly comes out and plays by itself. When it played
Baldwin, James. “Sonny’s Blues.” The Jazz Fiction Anthology. Ed. Sascha Feinstein and David Rife. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2009. 17-48.
At first glance, "Sonny's Blues" seems ambiguous about the relationship between music and drugs. After all, the worlds of jazz and drug addiction are historically intertwined; it could be possible that Sonny's passion for jazz is merely an excuse for his lifestyle and addiction, as the narrator believes for a time. Or perhaps the world that Sonny has entered by becoming involved in jazz is the danger- if he had not encountered jazz he wouldn't have encountered drugs either. But the clues given by the portrayals of music and what it does for other figures in the story demonstrate music's beneficial nature; music and drugs are not interdependent for Sonny. By studying the moments of music interwoven throughout the story, it can be determined that the author portrays music as a good thing, the preserver and sustainer of hope and life, and Sonny's only way out of the "deep and funky hole" of his life in Harlem, with its attendant peril of drugs (414).
James Baldwin is a writer from the twentieth century. He wrote “Sonny’s Blues,” a short story with the image in Harlem, as many of his stories were, was published in 1957. “Sonny’s Blues” is about the narrator, who remained nameless, and how his life changed after he discovers his brother’s drug addiction. “Sonny’s Blues” highlights the theme of light and darkness throughout the story’s good and bad event, the struggles of brotherly love, and the dilemmas that the narrator and Sonny face as siblings by being raised the same but taking totally different routes in their lives.
Jazz has been a genre we have been studying over these past couple of weeks. During these weeks I have acquired new knowledge that has interested me in this genre. I never viewed jazz as being a political style of music nor did I know that there were songs that contained political messages. Finding out about these different songs and jazz having some aspect of political style to it intrigued me to write about this genre.
The song I chose to do my project on is “Money” by Pink Floyd from their 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon. I chose this song because I grew up listening to Pink Floyd on the old record player with my father and this song was one of his many favorites. He used to tell me about this song and how it was relevant in the 70’s and to this day the old cash register noise always brings back memories. The song itself was Pink Floyd’s first hit in the US. The song represents the American dream of getting more money and the thought of money solving all the problems. People spend a great amount of their life trying to gain more money, whether it is investing their money, purchasing lottery tickets, spending it in casinos, working for it, or even stealing it. This song is about the bad things money can bring. Overall, I picked this
middle of paper ... ... The multiplicity of visions found within Morrison’s novel mirrors the multi-instrumentation of combo jazz and various solo ‘viewpoints’ from which a tune is played by different band members (Pici). Such a non-omniscient and non-omnipotent narrator makes storytelling an ongoing development, just like it is with the jazz music.
The next song played was “River” which is originally by Joni Mitchell. This song included the beautiful vocalists Sonya Kitchell and Amy Keys. “River” took a very different approach and was a lot mellower than the first, definitely not in the jazz fusion genre. Although, jazz fusion is my favorite I do have to say Herbie Hancock originally started off with classical music and like I mentioned before was not introduced to fusion until joining Miles’s band. This being said, Herbie Hancock played very slowly and softly in the piano. And everyone else followed the same